1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a hotspot network. More particularly, the present invention relates to managing data sharing over a hotspot network.
2. Background Art
The use of mobile broadband hotspots has further increased the ubiquity and convenience of wireless broadband access. Data transferring speeds to the mobile broadband hotspots are constantly improving and is presently conforming to the fourth-generation wireless telephone technology (4G) standard. A mobile broadband hotspot may allow a plurality of devices to connect to the mobile broadband hotspot through Wi-Fi signals, Bluetooth signals, or other types of local area connection signals. As a result, many mobile devices can share an Internet access by simply connecting to a nearby mobile broadband hotspot. Since wireless mobile devices such as smartphones, for example, may be used as mobile broadband hotspots, hotspot availability may further expand in the future.
However, when many devices are downloading large files through a mobile broadband hotspot, the aggregate downloading may negatively affect the available bandwidth for each device. For example, there may be four devices connected to a mobile broadband hotspot and each device may attempt to download the same large video file. Consequently, the same video file may be downloaded through a single mobile broadband hotspot four separate times. Such unnecessary duplicate downloading of a large video file or any other file may result in bandwidth congestion, thereby reducing the quality of service for all devices.
Furthermore, the mobile broadband subscriber may also be negatively affected from such duplicate device download activity. Service providers typically enforce relatively modest data transfer quotas for mobile broadband data plans per billing cycle, such as two gigabytes per month, for example. These data transfer quotas may be easily exceeded when bandwidth intensive services such as online video services are accessed, particularly with multiple devices. Exceeding the data transfer quota may result in degraded or zero connectivity for the mobile broadband hotspot, and may also incur costly overage charges for the data plan subscriber.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by presenting a solution for managing data sharing over a hotspot network so that a plurality of mobile devices may acquire a data file without duplicate downloading from a mobile broadband connection having a limited data transfer quota.